Just One Look
by myboygeorge
Summary: What did that look between Taylor and Ryan at Seth and Summer's wedding really mean? Why did Summer pull a face at Seth as she walked down the aisle? Read on to find out. Rated T for safety
1. 2 Days To Go

_Howdy all...I don't own the OC, etc etc...I recently watched the series finale of the OC and this was the brain child of seeing the scenes with Seth and Summer's wedding so R&R&Enjoy!

* * *

_

_2 Days Before the Wedding_

What the hell am I going to tell Summer?

It was all Taylor could think of as she stood on the front steps of Summer and Seth's Providence townhouse, nervously chewing on her fingernail as she melteed under the hot August sun. She'd flown in from San Francisco that afternoon, a basket case of nerves and stress, which according to her therapist wasn't the best way to fly. But neither was going to the wedding of her two best friends with one doosy of a surprise.

She'd thought about all the ways she was going to tell Summer exactly what happened: She'd gone to France, finished her degree and the minute she'd stepped off the stage in Paris with her diploma, she'd boarded a non-stop red-eye to Berkley, where she'd gone straight over to Ryan's apartment and they made love until the sun came up. They'd started that nearly two months before and had told almost no one, not even Summer and Seth knew and with good reason. Ryan had just gotten out of a messy just-using-each-other's-bodies-for-relieving-tension relationship and they'd all told him the last thing he needed was to get back involved with a needy, neurotic sex fiend.

They'd just missed the part where Ryan was mising _his_ needy neurotic sex fiend, his one and only in fact, and hadn't clued in to the possibility of them ever getting back together.

Nor would they have anticipated that that first night would have planted a tiny little Atwood-Townsend in Taylor's 24-year-old womb. Not even Ryan knew about that one yet; Taylor hadn't found the guts to tell him, for the simply reason she wasn't sure she even knew for sure yet. There were signs, yes - the late period, the nausea, the constant sweating and the ramped-up appetite - but also being Summer's maid of honor and the stress of planning the wedding with her from the other side of the country could have attributed to that, too.

If only that stupid flake of an OBGYN would text her back and then she'd know for sure if she was going to be ruining her best friend's wedding or not.

Taylor's nerves were put right back on their razor edge as the door opened and Summer answered, a surprised and excited look on her face.

"You're here!"

"Yes I am, and cannot wait for this bachelorette party tonight. Who all is going to be here?" Taylor tried to keep her tone light and cheery as they hauled her luggage into the living room and Summer poured them each a cold drink.

"You and me, obviously, Kaitlin, and two girls from the magazine, Renata and Gillian."

"I still can't believe you've working for _Grass Roots_. You've become a lobbyist! A far cry from the puff-pastry who always said 'ew' in high school."

Sumer wrinkled her nose. "Don't remind me. Seth and Ryan should be here soon. I'm so glad Atwood didn't bring a date for the wedding, because that Marina chick he was seeing was frea-ky. I mean, no offense but she made you look sound as a pound."

Taylor felt her smile tighten up just a little bit. She liked being the neurotic one of the gang and hearing that from Summer didn't sit so well. "What an astonishing compliment."

"I mean seriously," Summer continued, "who alphabetizes their entire wardrobe by designer?"

Taylor opened her mouth to answer, when the front door opened and she immediately felt a sucker punch as Ryan walked in behind Seth, who looked positively miserable.

"Summer, baby, hold me. The caterer yelled at me because i ate a sugared flower."

"Aw...ew! You're all sweaty!"

"Wanna go take a shower with me?" Seth rooted at her throat, making her laugh.

"Sure. Atwood, can you entertain Taylor for a few minutes?"

Ryan's eyes hadn't left Taylor's since he walked in the door. The intense look on his face had Taylor swallowing audibly as he crossed the room to her. "Oh I think we can stay occupied for more than a few minutes."


	2. 2 Days to Go II

"Do you think they know?"

Ryan hastily buttoned his shirt, then his shorts as he looked at Taylor who was pulling her own clothes back into place. She looked too tasty for words, sprawled on the livign room sofa, her face flushed from the sweat of good sweaty sex. In a deliberate move so as not to pounce on her again, he went to the kitchen and poured himself some iced tea.

"I know I'll probably jinx it by saying so, but no I don't think they do."

"Really?"

"All Seth and Summer say in their emails and their voicemails is, you need time for yourself to figure out what you want." Ryan shrugged as he drained his glass. "I know I want you, and the last time around, things didn't end exactly as we wanted to because everyone was in our business."

Taylor pursed her lips in a sly half-grin as she stood and sauntered over to him. "Right, and by keeping it on the QT, it makes it a little more fun."

"Yeah there's that too." Taylor laughed a little, even as she felt her stomach start sliding towards her throat. "Do you think you could pour me some iced tea? I'm just going to splash some water on my face."

"Sure."

Taylor made her escape into the bathroom and turned on the taps just seconds before she let fly the disgusting nausea in her stomach into the toilet. When she was certain her body had finished revolting against her, she rinsed her mouth and ran cool damp hands over her face. Damn she really needed to hear back from her doctor! But even as she thought it, her stomach clenched again. How would she tell Ryan if she was pregnant? And how could she be certain that he'd stick? They'd finally gotten their relationship back the way they wanted it, a third person in the mix there would just mean disaster.

Still, she couldn't dwell on it too much right now, she had to go and check into her hotel room, perhaps take a nap or a cold shower to escape the heat and then get herself all glammed up for Summer's last night of debauchery as a single woman.

When she emerged from the bathroom, she saw Summer and Seth in the kitchen with Ryan now, Summer on the phone looking more and more agitated by the second.

"What do you mean you lost the reservation? I had that room booked over three months ago!"

"What's going on?" Taylor walked into the room, caught Seth's eye as he shook his head.

"Apparantly the hotel lost your reservation and Summer is busy burning their ears off for it. So now it seriously sucks because we'll either have to find you a room at a different hotel or squeeze you in with Julie, Frank and Dylan, since they're the only ones who can spare the room."

"Why doesn't she stay with me?"

Taylor whipped around and glared at Ryan. "What?"

"I've got the room, there's a pullout sofa in my suite I don't mind crashing on, and Taylor can have the bed."

Seth pulled a face. "Won't that be a tad awkward, given your celibate streak and your ex-girlfriend you used to bone like a fish in such close proximity?"

"Seth, dont' say bone."

"Really," Taylor added, "don't you think Ryan has a little more self control than that? Plus since Ryan is the best man and I'm the maid of honour, it would give us the chance to go over last minute details for the wedding."

Summer hung up the phone, and slapped it violently against her hand. "Well, that seriously sucks. There's no free hotel space within ten blocks of the Pinchon."

"Actually Summer, Ryan has gallantly offered his sofa to Taylor," Seth said quickly, praying his bride wouldn't have a nuclear freak out. To his surprise Summer simply shrugged.

"That works, I mean, it's not like anything is going to happen there. Listen Seth, we have to go to the hotel to do a last minute walk through of the ceremony set-up. From what this clown's being talking about this week, it looks like we'll be awhile so Taylor, feel free to grab a shower, a nap, whatever food you want eat it, since I'm not grocery shopping before we go to Aruba on Monday. Atwood you know where the spare key is to lock up when you head to the hotel."

Once Ryan and Taylor were left alone, Taylor hissed out a breath at Ryan. "Are you insane? Now everyone is going to think things are going on with us if everyone knows that I'm staying with you."

"As far as everyone is concerned I am sworn off women right now, so you staying with me is the perfect cover. 'Taylor's staying with Ryan, who has a tendancy to help out his female friends, big surprise.'"

"Nothing so private as a crowd, I like it," Taylor smiled as she kissed Ryan. "Hey, you know what?"

"What?"

"We have the place to ourselves. Why don't we go take a shower and cool down...or heat things up again?"

An image of Taylor naked and lathered with soap danced through Ryan's head. "I'll get the towels."


	3. 1 12 Days to Go

_thanks for all the positive feedback!! p.s. if yount want to fully get the effect of the title, find the song "just one look" by doris troy and listen to it in the background as you read!!_

* * *

_1 1/2 Days to Go_

By the time Taylor and Summer were in the limo and dropping Renata and Gillian off at their respective apartments - Kaitlin had bailed early to be with her boyfriend who'd taken an earlier flight out from California - Taylor was dead convinced that Summer knew exactly what was going on; Summer knew what was goin gon and was waiting until the other girls were gone from earshot. Taylor had barely been able to keep it together when she'd gotten the long-awaited text back from her OBGYN. She was, in fact, not pregnant but simply suffering from a combination of stress and side effects of her new birth control. Taylor had been so shocked by the response that she'd immediately gone to the ladies room of the club and hurled her guts out. To her dumb luck, Renata had been in the next stall over and asked her if she was okay. Taylor had said she was fine, she just shouldn't have had next to no dinner and been drinking Manhattans and red wine on an empty stomach, and her body was simply catching up to her. When Renata left, a wary look on her face, Taylor had braced her hands on the counter and looked at herself in the mirror.

The fact that she wasn't pregnant wasn't what scared Taylor into projectile vomiting. Okay it was the initial factor, but now Taylor realized she was shaking because she was upset she _wasn't_ having Ryan's baby. She had pressed a shaking hand to her stomach and realized how much she'd been wanting all those symptoms to be blamed on the fruit of her and Ryan's vigorous love-making, that they'd created a little Town-Wood baby. She'd never been one to kiss and coo over small children, until Sophie and Dylan had been born

When she'd returned to the girls at their bar table, Summer had given her such a cockeye that she felt transparent as glass. _You know_, Taylor screamed in her head, _you know I was waiting on a text from my gyno to tell me if i was knocked up with the bastard child of your soon-to-be brother-in-law, you know i've been sleeping with him since I got back from France and you're biding your time like a shark until we're alone so you can go for the kill_.

They rode in silence for a few minutes, until Summer twisted on the plush bench of the limo and looked seriously at Taylor. "Are you okay, Taylor? Renata said you were sick at the club."

"Oh yeah, fine. It was silly to drink on an empty stomach."

"Listen, you can always stay at the house if you like, if you're worried about whether or not it's going to be too weird to stay with Ryan."

Taylor closed her eyes and let out a low scoffing chuckle. "Believe me, that's not why I was sick tonight Summer."

"Taylor, honey, I didn't want to say anything before the wedding, but I know."

At this Taylor's eyes flew open. "What?"

"You think I didn't see the look on your face when Ryan came in with Seth this afternoon? You still have feelings for Ryan, very strong feelings and-"

"I'm still in love with him," Taylor blurted out. "I'm in love with him, and this afternoon...it just came rushing back to me so hard, I thought I was going to pass out."

"Then go get him."

Taylor stared hard at Summer. "Haven't you been telling me since I got back how much he needs to be on his own?"

"Yes, but that look...my God I'm surprised you didn't melt his clothes off. Believe me Taylor, if you and Ryan hooked up because of the wedding, it wouldn't be the end of the world."

Taylor thought about what Summer said as she went back into the hotel, took the elevator up to the room. She let herself in quietly, heard the soft buzzing of Ryan's sleep-breathing and for a few moments just sat in the chair by the bed and watched him sleep. It was one of the few times in a day when Ryan looked totally at peace and content. His job was taxing on him she knew, but he loved his work, just as Taylor loved her job at the San Francisco branch of Double-Day translating French novels for publications. When they were together, he was sunny and jovial and happy, but when he slept, he no longer tossed and turned, or left the bed in the middle of the night because of insomnia.

He shifted, then, and slowly opened his eyes. When they focused, he smiled sleepily. Taylor felt the spit in her mouth dry up as the light cotton sheet slid over his body and she noticed he was sleeping in just his boxers. She knew she loved him for his compassion and sense of humour and his intelligence, but the fact it was wrapped inside a body that could have been carved out of oak was definitely a nice bonus.

"Did you just get back?"

"Yes."

"Did you have fun with Summer and Kaitlin?"

Taylor thought about the limo ride home. "Yeah. But Ryan, you should know that Summer is getting suspicious, and I told her I'm in love with you."

"What did she say?" Ryan propped himself on his elbow, watched Taylor as she rose from the chair and began to undress. It was in these moments with her, the normalcy of pre-pillow-talk talk of any couple that he loved to watch her. The layers of the day just seemed to melt off her until there was nothing but pure Taylor.

"She said for me to get you. That when people look at each other like we do, there's no harm in hooking up at a wedding, possibly rekindling things."

"But she doesn't know that things are already going on?"

"No, she doesn't." Now in her underwear - the air conditioning system of the hotel did little to ease the heat outside - Taylor slid into bed beside him, revelling in his arms pulling her tight against his body. "I hate not telling Summer things, but I really like the fact that only we know. Things have been going much better between us, don't you think?"

"They have. Don't worry, we'll tell them when the time is right."

Ryan kissed her deeply then, as if to reassure her they were doing the right thing keeping their relationship a secret. He pulled at her body gently, a subtle signal to her that once they'd gotten naked and satisfied, he'd let her go.

"Ryan, we already did that once today."

"Yeah, but if it's goign to be this damn hot outside, might as well make use of sleeping naked."

Taylor giggled as he rolled so she was sprawled on his chest. She instantly became lost in the moment with him, that she didn't hear the quiet _tock-tock-tock_ of her cellphone letting her know she had a new text message.


	4. 1 Day, 6 Hours To Go

_1 Day, 6 Hours Before the wedding_

When Taylor woke up, she groaned with contempt. She didn't have the headache of a hangover, but she did have the rolling nausea. Not caring she was still naked from rolling with Ryan all night, she leapt up and made a mad dash for the toiloet, where she immediately dropped to her knees. She emptied her stomach as quietly as she could, but to no avail. There was a light knock on the door followed by Ryan's voice as gentle as Taylor had ever heard it.

"Taylor, there's a Doctor Philomena Jarvis calling on your cellphone. Do you want me to take a message?"

"Yes please," Taylor said, the name not registering as Ryan left the bathroom, murmuring into the phone. She reached blindly for a towel to cover herself, feeling an immense relief that the nausea had passed. Never again would Manhattans be a method to chase away her stress. She bent over the sink, drinking straight from the tap, then studied her face in the mirror. She didn't look hung over, in fact her skin look amazingly soft and glowing.

_Glowing_.

_Doctor Philomena Jarvis._

_The OBGYN._

_Shit._

Taylor grabbed one of the robes off the back of the door and raced out of the bathroom, stopping short as she saw Ryan sitting on the bed, a glassy and shocked look on his face.

"Ryan?"

"That was your...doctor," he said slowly, "wanting to check if you got her text message concerning your pregnancy test results."

Taylor looked at the floor, ashamed of herself. "Look, Ryan I wanted to tell you that I'd gotten some tests done, but...I was scared."

"Of what?"

"That you would freak out, that you'd think it's too soon."

"Of course I'd freak out, it is way too soon for us to consider having kids. Doesn't mean I don't want to have them, but we haven't even told Summer and Seth about us being back together, and I seriously doubt they'd like to have their wedding upstaged by us having a baby."

Taylor tightened her bathrobe belt and sat beside Ryan on the bed, kissing him lightly. "That's very reassuring. Except I'm not pregnant so there's nothing to worry about. I got a text from Phil last night and she said that I was just feeling the side effects of my birth control combined with some stress. That's all."

"That's a relief." Except it really wasn't, Ryan knew, not for him at least. Since Kirsten had had Sophie, and Julie had Dylan, Ryan had started thinking about children more and more often, bout what it'd be like to have his own someday. He had realized as well, that any time he saw Taylor with his sister or his brother how loving and motherly she was with them, that this was the only woman he'd consider having children with. Even over the last three and a half years, when they'd done the long-distance thing, and split up, and got back together doing the long-distance thing and finally were able to be together, Ryan could only picture himself with Taylor as a parent. She was just neurotic enough to be a good worrier-mother like Kirsten and so delightfully geeky about life in general like Sandy that he could only imagine what their children would be like.

He wrapped his arms around her as she picked up her phone, then glanced at the colour digital face. "Hey, it says you have a new text message."

"Must be Summer, I know she wanted to go to the salon today to get mani-pedis for the rehearsal dinner tonight, which is at six, then we're having dinner just the Cohens, the Coopers and Summer's dad." Taylor hit the buttons to open the message. Sure enough, there was a short memo from Summer, concerning their appointment at La Petite Tulipe salon for one o'clock that afternoon. She slid the phone into her robe pocket and kissed him again. "I better go and get a shower, get myself looking all girly for a day at the spa."

"Yeah, Sandy is taking Frank, Seth and I for a round of golf so don't be too long."

Taylor smiled as she went back to the bathroom, began to run the water for the shower. Absently, she slid a hand into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She nearly set it on the countertop when she noticed there was an unread message. Odd, she hadn't heard her phone go off. She flipped it open and after a quick calculation saw that it was dated from the night before, sometime shortly after she'd arrived back at the hotel and was heating the sheets with Ryan. She opened the inbox of her phone and felt the bones disappear from her thighs as she read it.

_Taylor I'm so sorry, I sent you the wrong test results. You are pregnant. Please call me to confirm that you received my message. Dr. P.J._


	5. 18 Hours to Go

_once again, thanks for all the positive feedback...it's very encouraging for a writer to see comments like 'can't wait for more!'_

* * *

_18 Hours to Go_

Ryan walked around the garden of the hotel, thankful the sun had crawled behind some of the buildings and there were long patches of cool shadows everywhere on the fragrant green lawns. It had been great to gold for pleasure, not just to glandhand and talk business with potential investors and clients like in Berkley and San Francisco. It was also a great way to keep Seth's mind occupied before the wedding. The man had been more than a little warped out that something would go wrong at hte very last minute, despite Frank and Sandy pointing out the fact that since Summer was planning the wedding with Taylor's help, the possibility of catastrophe befalling them was next to nil. Seth had countered that despite it not being held in Newport, nor Berkley, many of hte key people involved in the wedding were from both and therefore the chance of diaster had remained the same.

Normally Ryan would have agreed but his mind was elsewhere for most of the day: he was worried about Taylor. She'd looked so freaked when she'd talked to him that morning about her pregnancy test, and Ryan knew his reaction wouldn't have helped much. He was, after all, a man of few words when he was ecstatic; being freaked out practically rendered him mute. Still, Taylor should have told him, if not for the sole reason that he could worry with her. It wasn't high school anymore where worrying about the future meant college and student loans and meal plans. They were done with that; now 'the future' meant promotions at work, travel, savings funds, weddings, in-laws, children...and it made the weight of the conversation with Taylor hang a little heavier in his heart.

He stopped as he came upon Taylor, sitting on a bench that overlooked the lush decorative fountain pool. That was was afraid to talk to her, openly and honestly, wasn't what stopped him. It was that she was crying, as though her heart had snapped clean in two. Ryan had never heard her cry like that in his life. Even when they'd parted ways when she'd gone to Paris she hadn't wept like this; it had been more tears of fury that they were going there separate ways yet again. Nor had she cried like that when he'd called her nearly a year before and they'd struck up the relationship again, agreeing to hold off on the physical aspect until she'd returned to the States for good; those had been droplets of joy cloggin her throat, she'd said.

Hearing her sob like this made his palms go damp, and he rubbed them on the backs of his thighs as he approached her. He gently laid a hand on her shoulder, relieved when she didn't jump and turn around.

"Taylor?"

"Hi, Ryan."

The words were said with such a wobble in her voice Ryan wondered if she would be up to telling him what was on her mind. "What's wrong? You disappeared after dinner."

"I know. I wanted time to think."

"About what?"

"A lot of things." Taylor gulped deeply, dabbing at her eyes and nose with a balled up tissue.

Ryan felt a hitch his his chest. When Taylor was this closed down and short of phrase, he knew it had to be serious, and had a feeling as to what it might be about. Sighing deeply and still holding her hand, he stared with her at the fountain.

"You're thinking about the message you got this morning from your doctor."

"Yes.

"You're worried about how I'm dealing with the whole thing."

"Yes," Taylor repeated.

"Taylor...I'm not going to say it was a surprise that you'd go to have yourself checked out, I mean, we do have a lot of sex. It...I just...Why didn't you talk to me before you went?"

Of all the ways this conversation could have possibly started with Ryan Francis Atwood, father of her child and emotional labyrinth she was only startin t ofigure out after all this time, Taylor would have picked this as the last one. "What?"

"Why didn't you talk to me if you thought you might be pregnant?"

"Because I was terrified that you'd freak out and wonder if I was trying to trap you and you'd realize that you and I were moving things way too fast, since we've only been 'together' together for a few months.

Ryan considered this. "You're right about the first and right about the third, but the second one...I'd hope you think more of me rather than assuming I would think you're trying to trap me."

"You realize I'm the same girl who tried to get you drunk and say you loved me when we were eighteen?"

"And you do remember that you were the one who wound up drunk and I said it anyways, and said it again and again when you were sobered up the next few days afterwards?" he countered. Surprising both Taylor and himself, he reaching into his back pocket, pulled out a small paper envelope and shook the contents into her hand. It was a promis ring, a sold band of golden hearts Ryan knew would fit perfectly on her hand. When she said nothing, Ryan only shook his head and kissed her, revelling in the softness of her skin. "I love you Taylor, and whatever comes down the pipe, we're in it together. No more of this keeping secrets because you're scared how I might take it, okay?"

Taylor nodded, blown away by his candor as he slid the ring onto her finger. "Okay, she whispered."

"Now, why are you crying about?"

"Mostly how you're going to think I'm a liar."

Thoroughly confused, Ryan kissed her again. "What are you talking about?"

Taylor pulled her cellphone from her pocket and showed her the text from Phil and handed it to him. "This morning when I said I got the results and I wasn't pregnant, I didn't realize she'd sent me a seond text last night," she explained as he read the message. "I didn't see this until after we talked and you had laft for golfing with the boys."

Ryan leaned back against this bench, his mind blown. "Whoa," he breathed. He was going to have a baby, for real this time, not just the chicken-shit panicked way he thought he did with Theresa back in high school. A calm had washed over him, as a soft vine-like thing bloomed hot in his stomach, like the first timed he'd kissed Taylor and just _known_ that was it. Images flashed in his head in rapid succession like strobe lights. A mental metaphorical image of one of Kirsten's herb-garden seeds being tenderly placed into the waiting damp soil of the terra cotta pots she'd bought for him, to 'help improve his kitchen abilities'. Sophie's birth, how he'd been terrified to hold her and everyone said he was a natural with her. The image of Taylor's body morphing and changing as their child grew inside her. The image of Taylor taking a hot bath to ease her trouble aways, as she was prone to do, with her beautiful bump poking up like a desert island in a sea of bubble. The fact that he came back to the thought of Taylor, pregnant and glowing and sudsed up still made his mouth dry, he realized, and began to chuckle at his own fantasy.

When he began to laugh, Taylor nearly threw up in the coi pond. She'd been so nervous to tell him, more nervous than about anything in the world and she'd been through a lot in her short life. "Ryan? Are you okay?" Since his only response was to laugh harder and harder, the smile never leaving his face, she began to laugh a little with him. "What's so funny?"

"I had a visual of you having one of your baths with a pregnant bump sticking out of the water-"

"And you didn't run screaming?"

"You and soap, what can I say, it's a sickness." Ryan put his hands "I need you to say it."

"Say what?"

"You know what."

Taylor felt more tears well up in her eyes, but these were tears of joy. "Ryan, we're having a baby." She gave a watery laugh and repeated it, liking the way it sounded. "Ryan, we're having a baby."


	6. 6 Hours to Go

Hello patient readers, I apologize for the delay in the update but y'know, life happens...anyways here is the long awaited chapter 5 to this glorious odyssey. R&R&Enjoy!

_

* * *

_

_6 Hours before the wedding_

Taylor carefully dried her hair, making sure the least amount of frizz was possible. She avoided the aerosol hair toner she'd become accustomed to using in France and went for the soft Garnier fruit hair balm instead. With long even strokes, she passed the hairbrush through her hair, wallowing in the silky feel of it against her hand.

"You may want to hurry that process along, or Summer's going to turn into Bride-zilla

Taylor glanced at Ryan in the mirror. His smile was charming and confident, as he knotted his tie. For a brief moment, she could picture them doing this in her apartment, only instead of a wedding, it was off to the office to build apartment buildings and libraries galore and she would be taking their beautiful child to daycare or the park. It was so...home-y and wonderful. She turned and offered him a superior smile.

"I'm styling for two now, you know."

Ryan only shook his head and kissed the tip of her nose. "Speaking of which, how are we going to tell the family?"

"Well, I don't think my mother really needs to know. Between her already assuming I'm fat and her ire that I got nothing out of living in Europe as long as I did, like a rich husband, well...I don't think that kind of environment would be good for a baby to be in at all in their life."

"I gathered that, I mean, what about the Cohens?" Ryan's eyes darkened as thoughts began to churn. "They still don't know we're dating, and if I told Seth today, well, then they'd all know and the last thing I think we need is Seth telling Summer her best friend is pregnant and having it upsetting her on her wedding day."

"I know. I've thought about that too."

"So...we're right back where we started." Ryan went over to the bed where his suit jacket was neatly laid out. "I mean, we could say we hooked up at the wedding and the baby is a result of that, but you'd already be showing by then and they'd be suspicious that it wasn't mine

"I think we should tell them today."

Ryan stopped cold in his tracks. "What?"

"Remember what everything was like in high school? All the secrets and the sneaking around, then that horrible mess with Henri showing up and the half-truths. There are much bigger things at stake this time around, I think we owe it to ourselves and our family to be honest."

"Right so how do we want to go about doing it?"

* * *

_1 Hour Before the Wedding_

"Summer, hold still!"

"I can't help it! I'm finally getting to walk down the aisle with a real diamond on my hand and not that plastic ring with an eye in the middle."

"Well, your diamonds won't be noticed if your melons are popping out of the dress."

Taylor was helping Summer into her Victoria Secret Wedding collection bustier and she was convinced that it was designed by a Puritan monk who wanted to make sure that it could shackle together and never come off for the consummation or duration of the marriage. They'd already gone to the salon and had their hair done, but Summer insisted that Taylor do her make-up since Taylor was a gentle hand with a bronzing brush. First, though, they had to finish the battle with the lingerie.

"There, got the little bugger. Now turn and sit down. Time to put on the warpaint."

"Yeah, speaking of which, what did you use on your skin this morning? You looking like you're glowing."

_Oh shit_. "Must be the after-effects of the

"Well the last time I saw a woman with skin that great was Kirsten when..." Summer trailed off, her dark eyes going wide with knowledge and shock. "Taylor are you _pregnant_?"

Panic was a hot oily slick in her throat, but Taylor's voice remained steady. "Am I what?" she said with pretend-shock.

"Oh my god, you are so pregnant! That's why you were sick last night, it's morning sickness Whose is it? Does Ryan know?"

_Of course he knows, because he's the father._ "Look, Summ, this is your wedding day, okay? I don't want to be responsible for ruining it, or upstaging you."

"Of course you wouldn't, because I'm not a big blabbermouth unlike my fiancee, who still couldn't keep a secret even if I duct-tapped his mouth shut. Who else knows?" Summer pressed on, noticing how Taylor neatly avoided all the questions she'd asked.

"Seriously, Summ, I mean it. I don't want anyone knowing about this until after the wedding. Not Sandy, not Kirsten, not anybody."

"I can't believe this! We need champagne! We need to celebrate!"

"Summer, I'm pregnant remember? No drinks."

"Then why were you out drinking two nights ago with us? Obviously you were pregnant then?"

"Why do you think I was so sick at the club? There I'm done. Have a look."

Suddenly this made a lot more sense to Summer, who looked in the mirror at her face. "Oh, Taylor, this looks amazing, thank you so much."

Tears were quick to spring into Taylor's eyes and she neatly dabbed at them with a Puffs Plus tissue. "You look so beautiful."

Summer sighed as she looked at herself, then whipped around as she saw the sparkle on Taylor's hand. "What's that?"

"What?"

"That on your hand. Is that...is that a promise ring?"

Taylor quickly hid her hand behind her back, a little too quickly obviously, because Summer reached out and grabbed her arm, pulled like a team of horses to see the new jewellery. "Okay, Taylor, I want some answers, now."

"This is what I meant, you're supposed to have the pre-wedding jitters right now, not worrying about me. This can wait, really."

"Fuck the wedding Taylor, you're starting to scare me. What is going on?"

In the best mommy-like voice she could summon, Taylor put her hands on Summer's shoulders. "Summer Roberts, soon to be Summer Roberts-Cohen, I love you so please just trust me when I say that this is nothing that can't wait until after you walk down the aisle and stomp on the glass with Seth. Please."

"Okay."

"Now come on. Let's get you into the dress and to the church.


	7. 45 Minutes Post Wedding

_45 minutes post-'I dos'_

The wedding was, in a word, beautiful. Taylor couldn't help but feel a little lightheaded and not because of the baby, but because of the giddiness of watching her best friend become a married woman. And only Summer could get away with sticking her tongue out at her husband as she walked down the aisle ('just a little tension breaker for Cohen', she'd said, 'otherwise he'd be the one in tears on his wedding day'). Now they were in the gardens, near the fountain where Ryan and Taylor had had their talk the night before, waiting to get their picture taken. Summer and Seth had finished the ones of the bride and groom and now the bridal party was going to be photographed.

"Do I look like I'm pregnant yet?" Taylor whispered to Ryan as she slid into her shoes.

"No. Kirsten was farther along than you were when she found out and she didn't look pregnant at all."

"Good, because the last thing I want is-"

"-to upstage your best friend on her wedding day, I know," Ryan finished for her. He jammed his hands in his pockets after he loosened his tie and offered a hand to help her up from the bench. She already had that pregnant-lady glow, though some of it might have been sweat since it was close to boiling in the shade. "When do you think we should tell them?"

"Soon. I want the pictures to be done first."

"Taylor! We need you!"

Taylor kissed his cheek lightly. "The bride, she calls," she said dramatically, then walked over to wear Summer was standing by the fountain. She had a smile plastered on her face as she fixed Summer's hair on her shoulders.

"What was that?"

"What?"

"That, you kissing Ryan just now," Summer said, the same smile plastered on her face. "I'm not stupid Taylor, I know something's up, would you please just tell me what it is? Who is the father of your baby?"

"I never even confirmed it that I was pregnant, Summer, you just came up with that on your own."

"But you told me you had morning sickness. You get morning sickness when there's an egg in the basket."

_Whoops, busted_. "Well, that's...look I'm telling the family as soon as pictures are done, okay?"

Summer sighed in relief and hugged her friend. "Thank you, thank you. I don't like worrying about you. Now smile."

Across the lawn, Ryan watched the girls with Seth, who was spinning his yarmulka on his finger like a bowl. Seth, despite his obvious joyful delirium at marrying Summer and pre-occupation with the speeches at the wedding - Sandy reportedly had a 'surprise' planned - he still could see that something was troubling his brother. He put a hand on his shoulder and said, "There was a time when I thought that you and Taylor would be next in line for the matrimonial train."

"Why do you think that?"

"Dude, you were like, in love with her, and not like Marisa Cooper 'it's hot because it's messed up' love, but serious 'we're happy just being around each other' love. You know Summer even had a plan to get you guys back together, after the last disastrous girlfriend?"

The sweat chilled on Ryan's back. "Really?"

"Oh yeah, she even mentioned it the morning after the bachelorette party, that she thinks there might be something there still."

Ryan opened his mouth to respond but was cut off when Taylor bounded over. What he wanted to say to Seth he knew would earn him a ticket to the doghouse from Taylor and the last thing they needed to be was divided. "I think we're just about ready for a family picture."

For whatever reason, this phrase struck a nerve with Ryan. Perhaps it was because he could remember what it felt like when he'd first seen the Chrismukkah card with his picture on the cover along with the Cohens or maybe it was the pictures from Julie and Frank's cards as well, but he suddenly found the desire to tell these people - his family, the most important group in his life - that he would now join their ranks in parenthood and get to send out the cards like them. Those cards had alway sbeen symbols to him of how despite the crap that life could throw at you, the centre of it was family and it was the rock that everything he had with the Cohens had been built on.

As soon as the picture was taken, he grabbed Taylor by the elbow and whispered in her ear, "We're telling them now."

Taylor looked at him agog. "What?"

"We're telling them now," he repeated, and tugged on her hand. "Excuse me, can I have your attention please?"

Everyone within earshot suddenly stopped and turned toward Ryan and Taylor. _Oh boy_, he thought, but he kept on going. "So there's something I need, well, that we need to tell you," he said nervously, taking Taylor's hand. His palms were damp, and much to his relief so were hers.

The group surrounding them - Summer, Seth, Sandy Kirsten, Kaitlin, Sophie, Julie, Frank, and Dylan - shifted closer with anticipation. Before it could be said, Sandy clapped his hands together. "I know, you two are getting back together, I just had a feeling this wedding would be the perfect catalyst for it."

"Actually, we've already been together for a little while," Ryan corrected him, making Sandy's massive eyebrows arching like caterpillars wiggling along a path. "We've been dating back and forth over the internet for about a year and finally got back together for real when Taylor moved back to California, and well..."

Ryan cleared his throat, looked balefully at Taylor, who took this as her cue to step up to the plate. "I'm pregnant."

There was nothing but the sound of shocked silence for a good three minutes. Taylor and Ryan glanced at each other, in a _now what?_ kind of panic. Before they could say anything, Summer was yelling at the top of her lungs and punching air with her fists like she was on a rollercoaster.

"Yes! Yes! I knew it! I was right! I knew something was up! And Ryan's the father? Taylor, how did you keep this a secret from me?"

"How did you keep this a secret from _me?_" Seth looked highly affronted, wounded to the core that Ryan would have sat on an egg this huge andnot told him anything.

"Because I only found out last night?" As Seth wrapped his head around this, Ryan looked over at the rest of the family, who were standing stock-still. "Are you guys okay?"

"Okay? Son, this is way better than okay. This is scary as hell but it's fantastic." With his arms stretched out, Sandy embraced Ryan in a tight hug. "One son's married, the other is having a baby. And Taylor and you back together...well, I always had a feeling you two would find your way back to each other."

As Ryan received supportive hugs from his adoptive parents, Taylor looked for some sign from Summer and Seth that she hadn't just one-upped their wedding. "Now do you see why I told you it could wait Summ?"

"Wait? Hell no! You and Ryan, I knew there was something going on there. I knew as soon as you walked in my house, I said to Seth that they seemed more than a little jumpy around us." Even as she said it, Summer pulled Taylor in for a tight embrace. "But don't you go thinking that I'm going to put my name in the baby race just yet. Cohen and I need some time for just ourselves."

"Yeah, we've rediscovered the _Kama Sutra_, which incidentally looks like it gave you a little boost too," Seth added, which earned him an elbow in the stomach from his bride.

"We've only been married like two hours, ass, don't make me hurt you before the honeymoon."

"Well thanks you guys, really, but let's not make a big deal about this during the reception, okay?" Taylor hugged Seth again as she said it, knowing he'd be tempted to work it into his toast. "I think I've had all the gushing I can handle right now."

Seth glanced over Taylor's shoulder and saw Kirsten wiping her eyes. "Well, get ready, because that is the grandmother of your baby right there and let me tell you, once you're part of the Cohen family, you're stuck. There's no getting away from us."

"Alright, it's a normal Newport Jew-Wasp family Cohen, not the Corleones. Although Sandy does a wicked Marlon Brando impression," Summer added, tugging on Seth's hand. "Come on. I think I heard the rabbi's an X-Men fan."

"Yeah we'll be inside in a few too, I need to find something to drink." Taylor rubbed her stomach absently.

"Come on, we'll find you a nice glass of milk, and since it's a party, we'll add some chocolate in there." Ryan wrapped his arm around Taylor's shoulder, kissing her temple as they followed Seth and Summer inside.

Sandy and Kirsten watched their children, their boys, head inside the hotel, and they linked hands as they began to follow them. "Do you think this really is a good thing?" Kirsten asked Sandy in a worried tone.

"Oh absolutely. They'll have no idea what to do at first, but they'll figure it out. We did, didn't we?"

Kirsten smiled, thought of her two boys and the fruit baskets of issues each had presented her with, and thought of the fine upstanding young men they'd turned into. "We certainly did.


End file.
